Lockheed’s ADAM laser platform can now disable small boats

As it is in so many areas, these days laser technology is beginning to catch up to the last hundred years or so of science fiction musings. Specifically, the idea of weaponized lasers is finally becoming a reality — though not in the form of handheld “phasers” or anything like that. Rather, laser weapons could be about to become an integral part of the weapons load out on large ships, or even planes.

The latest demonstration of laser power is impressive indeed, and comes to us from the depths of Lockheed Martin: the company’s venerable Area Defense Anti-Munitions laser (ADAM) has managed to fully disable a small, moving boat.

While that might seem like damning with faint praise (the battleship carrying the ADAM device had probably a dozen more practical ways to stop that same boat) but lasers have a number of huge advantages over conventional weapons. One: their photonics bullets move at the speed of light, making missing a non-issue. Two: they’re incredibly easy to target and cause no explosive damage, letting the military accurately disable ships without harming the people onboard. They also don’t require that we expend large numbers of expensive rounds — though the power needed to run these lasers certainly isn’t free, either.

Lasers have generally been thought of as an anti-air technology for a while now. That’s because the distance and speed of an aerial vehicle is make it an ideal choice, and because even a small puncture can easily be fatal to the fragile designs of modern, ultra-streamlined aeronautical designs. A boat, on the other hand, is a fairly sturdy thing, able to be plated with heavy armor. It’s inherently harder to sink a boat than to down a plane; you can’t just bail air back into your cockpit, as you can water from the bottom of your boat.

That’s why this disabling video is so impressive. Laser technology works by sending ultra-quick pulses of light, burrowing a little deeper into the target with every one. As such, the weapon only works if it can keep relatively steady on the target, layering shots one on top of another to dig through the surface and create a breach. Drones and airplanes follow a mathematically predictable path, gliding steadily unless taking evasive maneuvers; boats, on the other hand, bob up and down even while remaining perfectly still.

ADAM punched a hole in the side of this small, military-grade boat from a distance of roughly 1.6 kilometres. That’s roughly half the range of, say, a Mk44 Bushmaster II conventional lead-throwing naval gun, but the Bushmaster would also probably have killed every person onboard. The precision of lasers here helped them bring the vessel to a halt with nothing more than a slight puncture and some inrushing ocean water.

The most useful application for nearly-instant ammunition, though, is in shooting down the quickest and most elusive things in the sky: missiles. In late 2012, Lockheed debuted a video of ADAM shooting down a (tethered) rocket, again from about 1.5 kilometers away. This was the hope of the failed “Star Wars” orbital defense system: to make nuclear war winnable through an automated, missile-killer laser platformed. ADAM isn’t going to be mounted in space any time soon, but its functionality could theoretically be the same.

This technology has the capacity to fundamentally change the life of the American soldier, and to reshape the balance of power in the world. How much safer might people feel in Seoul if the space between them and North Korea was lined with these defense units? How much safer might a solider feel, with one of these in the vicinity?

This ignores a few possible problems of course, such as the sorts of simple modifications that might work as countermeasures; mirror-finish ICBMs aren’t just cool, they’re functional too! The ability to quickly and reliably down missiles from range has been the holy grail of defense technology for a very long time, and lasers have always been a prime candidate to acquire that ability. Now, the technology may finally be ready for application.